


Breathing Sunlight

by Menzosarres



Series: Glass and Iron [2]
Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 14:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1748672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menzosarres/pseuds/Menzosarres
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: If you're still taking Maleficent prompts, how about Aurora asks Mal if she'll let her fly with her through the skies? Oh my gosh, they're too cute. </p>
<p>Summary: This is set in the same universe as my last one shot, Glass and Iron, about a week after it ended, but you don’t need to have read it to read this one, just know that three years have passed since the end of the movie. </p>
<p>Originally posted on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathing Sunlight

“What’s it like?” Aurora asked, tentatively tracing a single finger along the ridge of bone and feather that joined Maleficent’s wing to her shoulder. She smiled as the wing shivered, reflexively tugging away from the ticklish motion.

“Having wings?”

“Well, yes… but I meant flying.”

 It was morning in the Moors, and Aurora was having a difficult time remembering a morning she hadn’t woken in the dark faerie’s arms. There was nothing that could quite compare to sleeping out beneath the stars with no fear of wild creatures or a sudden summer rain, and she missed the sounds of the faerie realm whenever she slept back in her human castle. Even if they hadn’t yet shared any deeper intimacy than an occasional stolen kiss, as neither of their lives presented much chance for privacy, the casual intimacy of sleeping wrapped in those wings meant so much more to her.

Maleficent was always at her most open in the mornings, her words coming slow and lazy as though the longer she took to answer Aurora’s endless questions, the longer they could share in a peaceful moment without any of their duties getting in the way. “Hmmm,” she mused, the sound of it echoing from somewhere deeper in her chest than a human hum, and Aurora could feel the vibration of it in the air between them, a feral hybrid of the purr of some great cat and the restless growl of a weary dragon. “I’m not sure I can do it justice with words,” Maleficent continued, sitting up and wrapping her hands about her knees, now looking down towards the young queen. Aurora watched in open fascination as Maleficent stretched out her wings, working out the night’s stiffness in a series of shuddering motions that sent stray leaves skittering around the edge of the small clearing.

“I’d like to say that flying is pure freedom, but it isn’t nearly as simple as that.” Her wings settled in once again, lying close against her spine like the feathered touch of a possessive lover. “Wings are a study in trust. Every time I pull away from the earth, I have to trust them to carry me, and I have to trust myself to steer true.” A wry smile lightened her words. “I’ve often told Diaval that I couldn’t imagine being a bird… flying without magic to fall back on.”

Aurora chuckled, picturing the raven-man preening at being told he had mastered something Maleficent wouldn’t have dared to try. She missed him sometimes, even though she had only known him a short while. After saving Maleficent’s life, the faerie had offered him his freedom and he had taken it, noting that he was no longer quite so young in raven years and that it was hard to find a suitable mate if he kept turning into a human and scaring off all the pretty birds. Aurora hoped she might someday meet his nestlings.

Just then, the sun finally rose above the treetops, bathing the clearing in full daylight and turning Maleficent’s wings into a gleaming array of silken umber shot through with shimmering hints of sun-kissed carmine and edged with flecks of pearl. It always stunned Aurora just how many hues hid within those feathers, from the glow of deepest indigo and haunting violet that only appeared in the dancing light of the luminescent nocturnal fair folk, to this dazzling display of warm earthen browns and sunlit gold. She wanted to wrap herself in every one of those colors and forget the worlds she ruled for… the next century or so.

“Would you ever… take me? Up there?” Aurora’s voice was so soft that, for a moment, she thought Maleficent hadn’t heard. A slow shake of the faerie’s head told her otherwise, but the nervous way Maleficent gently bit her lip hinted that the answer might be negotiable. “Please, Maleficent. I—I didn’t ask before because… Well… I didn’t want to bring up bad memories.” The only way Aurora even knew Maleficent was strong enough to carry her was from watching her drag her father out the castle window and off into the night, and those weren’t some of the memories the two liked to relive. Still, it had been three years now, and even if the skies were the same, she had changed, and so had Maleficent.

There was an indulgent smile on the dark faerie’s lips, but still she shook her head. “Aurora… I trust these wings with my life, even after all they’ve been through but you… you are something altogether more precious.”

Not wanting to have any more of this conversation from the ground, Aurora stood, putting herself on as even a footing as she could ever find when next to her significantly taller protector. She stepped closer, tugging at Maleficent’s hands until she coaxed the fingers to relax and intertwine with her own. “ _I_  trust them, though, your wings. I trust  _you_. Doesn’t that count for something?”

In a voice so soft Aurora could barely hear, Maleficent murmured, “More than you can ever know.”

The moment was weighty with things Aurora was just beginning to understand… things drenched in the complicated parts of Maleficent’s history Aurora hadn’t lived and couldn’t fully help her heal from. Still, now that she had started down this path, Aurora wasn’t ready to give up. She stepped even closer, pulling their joined hands behind her back and holding them there until Maleficent gave in, holding Aurora’s waist of her own accord. She wrapped her own hands about Maleficent’s neck, tracing her thumb along one sharp cheekbone on her way to be sure she had the faerie’s full attention.

“Show me then.”

There was a long moment of stillness, the clearing itself seeming to hold its breath in sympathy, until the arms about Aurora’s waist drew tighter and taut with purpose, and a single powerful thrust of Maleficent’s wings returned the breath to the Moors.

Too startled to even close her eyes, Aurora gasped as she felt the world lurch around her, quickly tightening her hold. As they pulled beyond the treetops, the air was torn from her lungs in a cry of exhilarated laughter.

They were flying.

Maleficent was right… there’s simply weren’t words. It was though all coherent thought had been left behind somewhere along with all the responsibility of her crown and all that remained was sunlight and color and pure sensation. First the clouds were above her, just there, peeking out between every great thrust of Maleficent’s wings, until one impossibly powerful push sent them spiraling up through a chilling mist and out the other side, leaving Aurora reeling with the thought that she may well be the only human to have ever been bathed in cloudstuff. Then, the clouds were below them, and when Maleficent allowed their ascent to pause, there was a moment when the sky felt so fragile, their place in the heavens so completely still, that her heartbeat felt out of place, and it felt as though she could breathe in sunlight rather than air.

Then they were falling, diving, plunging back down through that chill breath of cloud cover and all Aurora could do was cling on and laugh against Maleficent’s shoulder, reveling in this wild moment yet knowing with everything she was that the power in those wings would protect her from the ground below.

Pulling out of the dive, Maleficent tucked in her wings for a moment and deftly flipped them over, coasting along on a warm updraft and giving Aurora just enough time to steal a quick kiss. When Maleficent didn’t let her pull away, that one brush of lips quickly turned into a second touch of something longer and more thorough, and it was all Aurora could do to hold on and hope that none of it would ever end.

Too soon, the treetops were pressing up to meet them, and a delightfully misbalanced landing gave Aurora the chance to steal another kiss as they lay amid the fresh pine straw. “That was… I… Oh, thank you!”

Maleficent chuckled, gently brushing pine needles from Aurora’s hair as she endured the enthusiastic hug that was still keeping her from sitting fully upright. “Thank _you_ , little Beastie.”

“Whatever for?” Aurora asked.

"For… so many things." For a long moment, it seemed that was all the answer Aurora would receive, but the weight of Maleficent’s gaze was almost physical, and Aurora watched something spark in her eyes. "For letting me prove to myself that, despite everything, these wings have never faltered, and… for reminding me that I do still know how to trust.” 


End file.
